BOOK REVIEW: "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

For discussion of this book we selected the charming little cafe Amelie in Zagreb which I previously wrote about here. Lucija, Diana, Anita met in person, while Armina who lives in Sarajevo joined in later during the group discussion.


"Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali is written in two parts. First part tells the story of Ayaan's childhood while second part tells the story of her escape from a forced marriage and the brutal militant Islam regime in Somalia. 

In second part, Ayaan shares her wonder of arriving in modernity of Netherlands, and her relentless effort to create a productive, independent life for herself. An outspoken advocate of the rights of Muslim women, she was elected to the Dutch parliament in 2003. Ayaan became a notorious critic of Islam, at one point daring to call the Prophet Muhammad a pervert for consummating marriage with one of his many wives when she was only nine years old.

In 2004, she made a short film called Submission: Part 1 in which she depicted women mistreated under Islamic law raising their heads and refusing to submit any longer. Tragically, the film’s producer, Theo van Gogh, was brutally murdered by an offended Muslim, who left on van Gogh’s body a letter threatening Ayaan to kill her. 

Since 2004, Ayaan has had to live under the constant protection of bodyguards, often going into hiding for months at a time, currently she lives in US.

"At the time Christian charismatics were no less aggressive then the radical Muslims. Maybe people were just holding on for what was comforting and safe." - Ayaan Hirsi Ali (page 108)

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS

On the photo: Anita and Diana

Anita liked the way in which this book was written. It was easy to follow the story and relate to the feelings author wanted to portray, however she didn't like the part where Ayaan started to impose her political opinions towards the end of the book. 

Lucija pointed out how this book made her question her religious believes. She always considered herself to be quite liberal towards other religions, but she never took time to better investigate Islam as a religion. She wasn’t aware of the fact that radical Islamist separate themselves in their own communities when living in a foreign country, not for the sake of nurturing their religion and culture, but due to the fact that they consider other none-Muslims filthy.

Katarina - for me, the most memorable text in the book were last 10 pages where Ayaan fairly states that her giving up the faith is her private decision, she doesn't thinks all Muslim women should do it, she thinks Islam is a religion in which some of the practices need to be taken with reserve and not literary and they should be adopted to liberal democracy and the reality of living in 21st. century. To be perfectly fair, I think this should be done with Catholicism as well (women to be able to become priests, Church should be paying taxes etc.)

Lucija was also intrigued by the moment in the book when Ayaan came to asylum in Netherlands and was surprise to see how different then her Bosnian Muslims are.

Diana was particularly shocked when she learned that excision (genital mutilation) is still happening in radical Muslim communities not only in third world countries but also in communities stationed in Western European countries. 

UNDERSTANDING OF ISLAM

On the photo: Anita

Diana pointed out that the negative connotations of Islam for Westerners often come from the fear of unknown.  Diana considers herself Catholic but she is against many of the things Catholic Church preaches and has done in the past.

Armina, who is a Muslim from Bosnia, who survived a war in Bosnia, understands and practices her religion in modern and peaceful way said that she has negative opinion on the topics as the one discussed in this book. She thinks this book is politically motivated as many other books against Islam in the last 10 years and gives completely wrong picture of Islam as a religion to people who know nothing or little about it.  Armina thinks Ayaan’s descriptions are over exaggerated and sensationalized with the goal of making Islam look bad, focusing on self-promotion and selling the book.

Anita commented that she respects the different opinions of this book but she still highly recommends it and thinks it is a very motivating and intriguing female life story. Even if Ayaan has after escaping to Europe from a Somalia managed to do all she did: to educate herself and bravely speak up on sensitive subjects, consequently earning money from this book, so be it, good for her.

Katarina - the second time I started reading this book I also got the Quaran in English and the Bible to read in parallel, where I saw that indeed many of the verses from both books if taken literary as radical leaders take them in order to manipulate with poor, hungry and uneducated masses in the countries without real government leadership can be extremely violent and deadly, as these people are used and manipulated by a small group as an army of mortuaries. 

"No book is completely holly, the problem arises when the secret books are taken as absolute. Muslims should us their free will when understanding what is written in Quran. In the Quran, Alah calls himself benign and remorseful and a number of times He mentions that he has given us a free will. In comparison to Judaism and Catholicism, in Islam a penance to Allah."  

 writes Ayaan

This is what I think is now happening in the Middle East and in some other third world countries. I agree with Ayaan when she saids that Islam in majority of Muslim countries now in the world (in terms of population size) did't go through the reformation and enlightenment but is practiced the same as in 7th or 8th century, and these practices do not belong to 21st century.

     Armina thinks that Ayaan’s horrific childhood molestation and mutilation have more to do with the third world African culture where she is raised then with the true meaning and the practice of Islam as a religion in general. 

Armina points out that those who are the strongest critics of Islam mostly haven’t even read the Quran and  investigated the religion in depth. She finds it sad that people are blaming and stereotyping all of the Muslims according to terrorist deeds of Muslim extremists, she saids that this would be the same as if she would blame the Serbs as a nation for the deeds of the Serbs who attacked her country - Bosnia.

On the photo: Lucija

Lucija concludes that although she is a Catholic she doesn’t believe in Catholic Church – Vatican, but she believes in God and the community of people with same believes who are "The Church" in her eyes.

"Why are infidels enjoying the life in peace in democracy while we - true Muslim nations, are killing each other when we are the ones who are respecting the God in the right way?" 

 asks Ayaan in the book (page 269) 

WOMEN IN ISLAM

Armina points out that the base of every religion (Islam as well) is not to hurt any other live being (man, women, child) no matter where and how in the world religion is to be practiced.  Armina pointed out the verse from Islam refering to the way man should treat women (which I also found) which saids: "The Best Among You, Is The Best To his Wife".


 Ayaan compares relationship between God and human in Islam as a relationship of a master and a slave and saids that Quran is written by a human and not God (which also goes for Bible). She claims that Islam as she knows it is taking all of the human rights from women.

The most memorable and suitable quote from the book for Anita was comparison of Muslim women with the birds in the cage who are still afraid to fly out to the freedom even when you wide open the doors of their cage.

"Each value I learned from Islam taught me to put myself last.

"Allah said that men must beat his wives if they do not obey, this is written in Quran." 

writes Ayaan (page 293)

CONCLUSION

Overall, the book “Infidel” is definitely eye-opening and shocking, especially for those of us with a narrow knowledge of Muslim culture and Islam as a religion. It is hard for us to distinguish the elements of radical vs. more modern Islam practices.

We have agreed that the women who are currently going through the suffering which Ayaan went through while living in Somalia and Middle East in her childhood are probably unfortunately unable to get in contact with this book and read through Ayaan’s experience and maybe find  motivation to follow Ayaan’s example. 

Most of the ladies agreed that this book should be viewed as memoirs of emancipation of a very determined and strong woman who is trying to fight her way from what looks like the end of the world to a modern civilization where she can be the owner and a tailor of her own destiny.

Did you had a chance to read the "Infidel" ladies? What is your opinion on it? 

You can find out more about the La Passion pour la Fashion book club here and read more about the ladies in this exclusive club here. For more photos from this meeting check out our photo gallery. You can see the book we are currently reading in the right column of the blog and are welcome to read along with us and later comment on the book by adding comments to our reviews.